Labour Plan to Revive Broadband Tax

Labour Plan to Revive Broadband Tax

13th Apr 10:59

Labour has today announced that should it be elected next month, it will introduce a tax to fund an extensive roll out of broadband across the country. Labour says it will invest £1 billion by 2017 which will allow 90 per cent of the UK to receive 2 mbps of broadband.

The party has stated that it expects the last 10 per cent of the nation to get online will use mobile broadband or satellites to connect to the internet.

The party's manifesto does not go into a lot of specific detail about the scale of the tax, but has referred to it as a 'modest' amount. When it was originally proposed following Lord Carter's Digital Britain Report in June 2009, the tax looked set to be around 50p per month.

The manifesto also states that Labour plan to work closely with the organisation Consumer Focus "to develop a website for parents to register their concerns about sexualised products aimed at their children". The party says it will "develop new incentives" for parents to make use of online services.

Finally, on the topic of "public service in a digital age," Labour has reinstated its intention to open up all non-personal held by the government. It promises to "give citizens direct access to the data held on them by public agencies".

If Labour do get elected at the end of this campaign, they have said that the broadband tax shall be introduced "early in the new parliament".